


triads

by driedvoices



Series: Triads 'verse [2]
Category: Glee
Genre: F/M, M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-05-13
Updated: 2012-05-13
Packaged: 2017-11-05 08:10:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,277
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/404202
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/driedvoices/pseuds/driedvoices
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's not a <i>thing</i>.</p>
            </blockquote>





	triads

Finn makes a point to tell himself that they're not a _thing_ at least twice a day.

In retrospect, it's kind of useless. 

-

It's just that Jesse's—he's _him_ , and Finn does not know how to deal with that. Doesn't know how to deal when Jesse catches him staring at Rachel and smirks, starts playing with the hem of her skirt just to mess with him. When they're singing and Jesse always makes sure he's close enough to run his fingers up his arm, wrap them around his wrist. When Schue starts scheduling extra practices as Regionals approaches so he has to put up with the staring and the touching and the creepy whispering in his ear just that much more every week. 

It's kind of really annoying. Doesn't help anything that it happens to make Finn's mouth go dry, either. 

He decides that the best way to treat the situation—because it's not a thing, Christ, it's just something that happens, like appendicitis or a forest fire or whatever—is to not acknowledge it. He does what he did when he was six and there were monsters living under his bed: ignore them and they will go away. Jesse is totally just a more compact, humanoid version of the things that used to hide in the shadows until his mom turned the light off. It's just that nobody else sees the claws or the fangs or the evil eyes. He's almost a little glad for it, because at least now nobody will wonder; if nobody sees the way Jesse looks at him, then they can't guess at what he's already done, and they can just assume that Finn's dodging him because he's the jerk who stole Rachel out from under his nose. 

For a little while, it works. He makes sure he has Mike or Matt around him at all times, so he won't fall for that sneak attack stuff like before, and he tries not to mind whenever Rachel gives him those little disappointed looks when he suddenly has to run to his locker or to his car or far, far away from her and her boyfriend. Because Jesse does not acknowledge the rules of fair play. One day Finn is talking to her about Spanish homework and Jesse just comes up behind her and starts kissing her neck, and then his _tongue_ is in her freaking _ear_ —it's just pointless, because Finn doesn't care about what Jesse does with Rachel, not enough for it to bother him that Jesse keeps his eyes on him while he's pretty much ear-fucking his girlfriend. Not at all. 

Except that he has to run to the bathroom and think _mailman_ on repeat for about five minutes before he can look at either one of them without blushing. 

Shit. 

-

Honestly, it just goes to show that he was right all along and Jesse St. James is a douche. 'Cause he's doing this on _purpose_ , and he doesn't even act like he cares that Finn's avoiding him. It's just like he's bored and he wants to see how much Finn can take before he completely snaps. 

Short answer: not much. 

"What the fuck is your problem?" he demands after glee. Jesse doesn't answer, just collects his books and heads for the door. "Will you, like, _not_ walk away from me when I'm trying to talk to you?"

"You do it all the time," Jesse shrugs. "I smell a double standard." And then he just kind of stares him down, like Finn isn't taller and stronger and totally capable of kicking his ass, completely and totally fucking infuriating, and the sad part is it _works_. Finn knows that he's trying to get him angry and worked up, so he can make Rachel upset again or something equally dickish but he can't help it, and he grabs Jesse by the collar. 

"Look," he grits out, pushing him against the wall for good measure, "I don't know what the hell you're trying to do, but you need to quit it."

Jesse doesn't even have the decency to look _bothered_. "Are you trying to blame something on me?" he says, glaring and breathing hot onto Finn's face. "Open your eyes, I'm the one pinned to a fucking wall here, not—" 

Finn doesn't hear the rest of that sentence, because his mouth decides to detach from his brain and latch onto Jesse's stupid fucking face. 

He kind of hates giving in but Jesse makes a little pleased noise in his throat (he knew this was going to happen, asshole) and ruts against his leg, so he figures he'll deal.

-

They kind of fall into a routine after that. Kurt hits on Finn during glee practice, Jesse presses him into the bleachers and kisses him. Rachel holds Jesse's hand in the hallway, they skip class so Finn can shove him up against a locker when no one else is around. 

There's one day where Finn sees Puck and Quinn yelling at each other and she runs away crying, and it's the worst he's felt in a really long time, so Jesse notices and pulls him outside during lunch and grinds against him, and Finn kind of worries that somebody will drive through the parking lot and see them.

Then Jesse starts groping him through his jeans. 

"What," Finn says stupidly, like he seriously wasn't expecting this. Jesse just gives him a stare that rivals Kurt's best 'bitch, please' face and shoves his hand down Finn's pants. 

That's pretty much when it stops being Finn pretending he hates Jesse's guts and starts being a thing. 

-

And anyway, he thinks as he's falling asleep one night, the monsters under Finn's bed didn't smirk at him or have hair that was awesome to run your hands through, so he kind of owes Jesse a mental apology. 

He gets a phone call three minutes later, which consists of Rachel hitting breathy little notes he's never heard before and Jesse's laugh in the background, soft and the faintest bit smug. 

Finn takes it back. 

-

So he kind of has a thing for Jesse now, but the weird part is that he spends more time with Rachel because of it. Maybe it's guilt, or the fact that he can look at her ridiculously short skirts and know that he'll get taken care of by someone other than his right hand, or maybe it's that he's always liked Rachel, and probably always will, but she's more accessible once you've jerked off her boyfriend a couple times. 

Whatever. He likes hanging out with Rachel. 

She's cooler when they're not around everyone else, when she doesn't feel like she has to outshine everyone and be Rachel the superstar, which is awesome, because Rachel the girl is pretty and bubbly and laughs when he says dumb things instead of correcting him. ("I think we need to do a number from _In the Heights_ at Regionals, since it would really give us an opportunity to showcase our superior dancing skills while supporting modern theatre—"

"I have no clue what you're talking about."

"It's okay. Here, I'll play it for you.")

And even when she's not being crazy high-strung about it, she's still Rachel and she can't function if she's not busy, so when she's not trying to run the club by herself and when Finn isn't making out with Jesse clandestinely, she'll drag him out to the stage after school and make up little mini-numbers, just for them. Sometimes it's stuff from musicals that he's never seen, but sometimes she'll throw in some CCR or Billy Joel or Foo Fighters and he knows it's for him, and that makes him feel kind of awesome, like he's the center of somebody's universe. 

And when he's twirling her around onstage and she stumbles and falls into him, they both laugh, even though he's just kind of hugging her and it should feel weird. 

It isn't weird, though. It's Rachel. It's good. 

-

One time, though, he's late leaving school and something catches his eye in the hallway, so he stops to look. It's Jesse, of _course_ , it's Jesse, because when is he not in the middle of everything, but Finn doesn't call out for him because he's got Rachel around the waist and one of his hands is trying to sneak down her thigh and up her skirt. 

He freezes for about five seconds, wondering if he there was somewhere he could hide and watch without them knowing, but then he coughs and says, "Jesse, can I talk to you for a second?"

Rachel jumps back, shocked, and bangs her head on the wall. Jesse just looks up and nods lazily, not even pretending that he wasn't trying to get to third base with Rachel in the middle of a hallway. 

"I should probably go, anyway," Rachel says nervously. She gives Jesse a quick kiss that Finn tries not to watch and straightens her clothes, patting Finn on the arm as she half-runs out of the building. 

As soon as she's gone, Finn has Jesse pushed up against a row of lockers and is glaring at him, full-force. 

"Why is it always the pushing with you?" Jesse murmurs conversationally, and brings his thigh up between Finn's legs. 

"I don't like you doing things with her," Finn growls, trying to ignore the pressure to his groin, squeezes Jesse's shoulders a little harder to compensate. 

"'Doing things'? I'm not sure what kind of things you mean." Jesse shakes free and trails a hand down Finn's side. "These kinds of things?" he asks, flicking open the button of his jeans. And then Finn is pretty much gone, anyway, so he lets Jesse flip them around and get him off, and when he comes, his groan echoes through the hall. 

Jesse doesn't stop, though, keeps his hand around Finn's dick and starts whispering in his ear. "I'm going to fix your little problem, right now," he says, and it sounds like a promise. Finn bites his lip. 

"She was already soaked, you know," Jesse continues, hot against his ear. "She wouldn't have lasted two minutes. If you hadn't said anything, you could have seen her come." He lets out a gasp, and Jesse grins. "I wonder if you're jealous of her or of me." 

And then Finn's whining in his throat, saying, "Please, fuck, I _can't_." Jesse's lips twitch against the skin of his neck. 

"Practice makes perfect," he chirps over the sound of Finn's breathing, and drops to his knees. 

-

"What are you doing after school today?" Jesse whispers in her ear, hot and close. Rachel bites down on her lip. 

"Jesse, there are _people_ around," she warns. "I—God, stop it—I told Finn that I'd help him practice this afternoon." 

Jesse slides away from her, just marginally. "You've been spending a lot of time with him lately," he observes, toying with a strand of her hair. "Should I be jealous?"

"That's preposterous, you know I'm seriously committed to you," she says, half a beat too late. 

"Of course," Jesse obliges, and kisses her forehead with a smile. 

-

Finn tracks her down after final bell, and she's standing by her locker with her face all flushed and her forehead crinkled. "Hey," he says, and knocks on her head playfully. "Everything okay in there?"

"Mm," she nods, giving him a tight smile. "I'm fine. I just don't feel much like practicing, I guess. Do you want to go do something instead?"

"Whoa," Finn says, "who are you and what have you done with Rachel?"

"Oh, you're so funny," she says, scrunching her face up and punching him in the arm. "Am I really that—"

"Yes," Finn deadpans, and she sighs and slouches against her locker. 

"Fine," she says. "I can be fun." She shoots him a hesitant look. "What can we do that's fun?"

"Ice cream is fun," Finn offers, _so_ glad that he doesn't say the first thing that pops into his head. "Movies are fun."

"I can do ice cream and a movie," Rachel says, smile playing on her lips. She pokes him in the chest. "But if the movie is so violent it causes me to regurgitate my ice cream, I think it would defeat the purpose somewhat."

"I'll give you that," Finn shrugs. "Come on, I'm sure there's something playing we both like."

She nods in agreement and follows him to the car. Finn opens the door for her and she curtsies, sliding in the passenger seat like Cinderella into her carriage. 

_Louder Than Bombs_ is in the CD player, and Rachel gives him a quizzical look when the car starts and Morrisey's voice pours out of the speakers. 

"I had no idea you listened to melancholic Brit-pop, Finn," she says. 

He shrugs; he just likes it because it was what his mom used to play in the car when she needed a cry and a drive, and it got stuck in his head after awhile. "Guess I'm full of surprises."

Rachel smiles, gently, and starts singing along to "Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now." Finn joins in with enthusiasm, making a face as she laughs at his falsetto. 

He wonders why it hadn't always been like this, why he had cared that she was a little crazy and too smart for him, why he didn't just latch onto her the day he met her and refuse to let go. This is an easy, guiltless kind of happy, and it fills him with as much satisfaction as beating the shit out of Puck or kissing Quinn in between prayer breaks or sneaking around with Jesse. It _should_ be this easy, and he can't think of a single reason why it isn't. 

His eyes flicker down for a moment and he sees a stain under her thigh from where he maybe sort of sucked Jesse off between classes one day, and remembers: they're in high school. Nothing is allowed to be easy _ever_. 

The song changes and he looks at Rachel out of the corner of his eye, staring out the window and humming contentedly. Her hair is curling prettily around her shoulders, a few escaping strands stuck to the headrest. His eyes go down to her lap, the shadow her skirt makes above her knees that retreats when she crosses her legs, and he thinks, _Jesse's been there_.

His hands tighten on the steering wheel. 

"Ask me, I won't say no, how could I," Rachel sings, turning back to him and leaning lightly against his shoulder. 

_Shit._

-

He keeps his hands pointedly to himself during the movie, and if Rachel's arm brushes against his and she chooses to leave it there, well, that's her problem. At the ice cream shop, she stands dangerously close to him, ordering a cookie dough cone and causing Finn's tongue to stumble when he says he just wants plain old "v-vanilla."

She seems perfectly unconcerned, and after about two seconds she demands for a bite of his. "For comparison," she justifies. He shakes his head fondly and holds his cone over to her, expecting her to take it, but instead she just wraps her hand around his and takes a long, careful lick that makes him more than a little bit uncomfortable. 

She's doing this on purpose. No, she _can't_ be doing this on purpose. Rachel Berry is crazy but she's not evil. 

His glances over and sees her tongue dart out of the corner of her mouth, picking up a chocolate chip gone awry. 

She is so doing this purpose. 

They pull into her driveway and she pauses after she undoes the seatbelt, staring at him curiously. 

"I guess this wasn't a completely wasted evening," she says slyly. 

"Gee, Rachel, I'm so flattered," he returns, poking her in the side. 

"I mean it," she says, and grabs his wrist; it has a sobering effect. "Thank you. I had—fun." Her smile is sincere and sweet, and her lips are soft against his cheek. "I'll see you later, Finn," she says, and darts up the lawn.

Finn groans and lets his head fall against the steering wheel. So not fair. 

-

"Heard you went on a date with my girlfriend last night," Jesse says to him after glee, throwing a casual arm around his shoulder. 

"Dude," Finn says meaningfully, jerking his head at the room: _there are still people here._

Jesse ignores him, and he's got that weirdly shiny look in his eye, like a window with a light behind it. "Forget them," he says, "they don't matter right now. We're talking. That matters." 

"You're being kinda fucking weird," Finn tells him. "Did you know that?"

"I just want to know what you did last night, that's all."Schue's following Artie and Tina out the door now, waving good-bye. Jesse waves back and smiles. 

"We didn't do anything, we were just hanging out," Finn says irritably, and then: "What the hell, man?" because Jesse is straddling him and they're in the freaking music room and he can still hear people milling around outside, just waiting to walk in on them. 

"I just want to know," Jesse says simply, rolling his hips, "what you did."

"Jesus Christ," Finn says, shutting his eyes. "We went to a movie, just—we cannot do this here, you dumbass."

"Fuck you," Jesse says mildly, leaning down to mouth at Finn's neck. "Did you sleep with her?"

"What?" Finn hisses and jerks his head up so fast it hits the bleacher above them. " _God_ , no, I didn't, okay?" 

"You wanted to, though," Jesse hums thoughtfully. 

"That doesn't have anything to do with anything."

"I'm just trying to figure out why you didn't," he says, and then he starts trying to undo Finn's jeans, so apparently the time for deep thought is over. 

"If we get caught I'm never speaking to you again," Finn says and swallows, arching up against him all the same. 

"I can't say I'll miss the intellectual—stimulation," Jesse replies with a grin. "Will you just relax for five seconds? No one is walking in here, nobody's going to find out, and if you would shut up we'd probably already be done with this."

"Sure know how to make a guy feel special," Finn grunts, batting Jesse's hands away from his fly and knotting his hands in his hair. Jesse makes a frustrated noise and gives up on any actual skin contact, just grinds down on Finn through their jeans. 

They don't hear the knock on the door, and they don't see Rachel until she drops her books on the floor with a loud clatter. 

"Oh," she says, faint and tinny. 

"Rachel," Finn says, pleading, desperate, but—what else can he do? He struggles to sit up straight, but it's no use trying to push Jesse off him now, she's already seen—

Jesse, who is sitting back on his knees, nearly _smiling_ at her. "Hey, Rach," he says, and settles a bit more comfortably into Finn's lap. Freaking moron. 

"I'm, um. I'm going to leave now," she says, and bolts out the door. 

"Rachel, wait," Finn calls, shoving Jesse hard in the shoulder and running after her. 

Jesse St. James is not fond of being pushed around and left unsatisfied on classroom floors. He puts up with way too much shit for these two. 

-

Three days. 

Three days she goes without saying a word to anybody. Jesse surprisingly has enough tact to stay away from both of them, so he tends to stay glued to Mercedes and Kurt, who are baffled but welcome his arrival. 

Finn hangs around Mike and Matt, like normal, shooting glances at Rachel's slumped body in the front row. 

It's not until Tina remarks that it's been awhile since Rachel's sung a duet with anyone that the rest of the club realizes that something's up.

-

Jesse calls him one night, while he's brooding over his homework. 

"Hey," and his voice is still familiar and cocky, because some things never change. "Are you doing anything?"

"Hating you," Finn answers. The _hating me_ is unsaid but present. 

"Well, would you rather hate me in person? It's been awhile."

"You cannot be serious." 

"Really? That's strange, because I'm pretty sure I can." He laughs a little. "Sitting alone in your room is not going to accomplish anything, I'm sorry to say, and unless you're planning on standing outside her window with a stereo blasting Peter Gabriel—"

"You know what?" Finn says, equal parts bewildered and pissed off. "Fuck that. You—we hurt Rachel, okay? We hurt her, and I care about her, and that counts for something. You can't—you can't just pretend that other people are stupid for not thinking like you when all you care about is fucking with people's heads. So you can go to hell."

Finn hangs up and throws his phone against the wall. Anger management be damned. 

-

The next morning he finds a note shoved in the grate of his locker. _Meet me at my house after school._ There's a gold star next to it. Finn looks around quickly, like maybe she's going to jump out from nowhere and yell "surprise!" but then his mind takes over and rationalizes that hey, she probably wants to formally address the fact that she hates you and you're human scum. 

He folds the note up, anyway, and keeps it in his pocket. He can feel it burning against his leg all day. 

-

He cuts the last twenty minutes of class, and he spends fifteen of them nearly hyperventilating in front of her house. He's still breathing kind of funny, a mix of dread and excitement, when she taps on his window. He jumps, eyes wide, until he remembers what he's here for and he steps out of the car. 

"Hi," she says, staring at her shoes. "I wasn't expecting you to get here so early."

"Rachel," he says, wanting to grab her and hug her but afraid to touch her. "Rachel. I am so, so sor—"

"Stop," she says, looking up at him. Her eyes are surprisingly calm. "Don't say anything right now. Not yet."

"Okay," he says, chewing on his bottom lip. He follows her inside, and she goes on like he's not even there. Kicks off her shoes at the doormat, hangs her bag on the staircase, goes to the kitchen to pour herself a glass of water. "Want anything?" she asks, gesturing to her cup. 

"I want to talk to you," he says honestly, and she exhales loudly. 

"I told you, not yet, not until—"

"Until what, Rachel?"

"Until I get here."

Finn turns sharply and of fucking course Jesse is leaning against the wall like he was born there, smirking and Finn doesn't know if he wants to punch him or kiss him or both. He's right, though, because Rachel clears her throat and looks pointedly at them. 

"Okay," she says, mostly to herself. "Okay. This is—really hard to say, so I'm not going to say it, I'll just—" She trails off, looking up. Finn's staring at her like he normally does when she's saying something he doesn't understand, but instead of just getting exasperated she reaches up and puts a hand behind his head, stands up on her tiptoes and kisses him. 

Rachel is _kissing_ him. For real. He had no idea how much he missed this until now. But she pulls away way too quick, and when he puts an arm around her waist to drag her back she just gives him this look and walks away, straight to Jesse and kisses him, too. 

Okay. 

"So," she says, with a nervous giggle that quickly dissipates, because she is Rachel Berry and she _always_ knows what she wants. "I think everyone's on the same page now." Finn is staring at her like she just grew another nose, Jesse is staring at Finn in a similar manner, and Rachel's eyes are flickering all over the place like she can't decide who to stare at. 

"It would be really nice if one of you could just be kissing me again," she suggests politely, and that's all it takes, because Finn is usually a patient guy, but these—these are not normally circumstances, so it's okay if he acts a little abnormal, too, strutting over to Rachel and pinning her against a wall, taking two seconds to love the closeness of her breath and the feel of her forehead against his before he ducks down and kisses her hard. 

She groans a little and wraps her arms around his back, pulling him closer, but Jesse comes up and takes her hands away, holding them just under where Finn's are planted on the wall. 

"I don't only care about fucking with your head," he says quietly, chin on Finn's shoulders. "I like fucking with the rest of you, too." It's as close to an apology as he'll ever get, so Finn doesn't push him away when Jesse presses flush against him from chest to thighs, grinding against him and pushing him into Rachel. She lets out a little gasp and raises her hips against Finn, and—

This is all really, really weird. 

Jesse is, predictably, the only one unfazed. 

"I should have thought of this ages ago," he murmurs against Finn's neck, letting his thumbs rub up and down Rachel's wrists. "Should we work out a system or something? Because I want to fuck you first." 

Finn makes a little noise into Rachel's mouth. 

"Or I guess you could help Rachel out _while_ I do it, that would work, too."

Jesse St. James is _such_ a douche. 

Finn and Rachel don't complain, though.


End file.
